How weather can impact bear sightings

You may have seen videos going around on social media of a black bear passing through portions of mid Missouri in Centralia. It's not often that we see black bears across this area, but this site might increase in future years as populations increase.

Nate Bowersock is a furbearer biologist for the Missouri Department of Conservation,"So right now you know we're estimating there to be a little over 1000 bears in the state and with a 9% growth rate, which means we expect the bear population to double in size every 10 years. This time of the year is when a lot of the higher quality foods start to become available, so specifically fruit."

Near average or above average rainfall totals during the spring and summer months can positively impact black bears since fruit bearing plants respond positively. This means more food for bears across more broad areas, meaning bears can survive happily across a wider range.

Nate Bowersock, "Drought can have a lot of different implications, that can lead to brooding plants, aborting their their fruits, so they, or just not being as productive, and bears are gonna have to look for alternative foods."

Drought can limit bears to specific areas across the state when food is not readily available. Temperatures across mid Missouri have been mostly below average heading into June, causing for bears to move more often during the daylight hours. During stretches of high temperatures, bears are not seen traveling during the day as often.

Nate Bowersock mentions, "So on those days, it's really, really hot, you probably won't see much bear activity during the day cause they're they're just trying to try to ride out the heat till it cools off."

Now folks shouldn't trust too much about black bears across Mid-Missouri. Nate Bowersock mentioned so far interactions have been fairly positive between humans and black bears, but people should avoid trying to feed bears or getting too close.